Amy Roost grew up wanting to be a documentarian. She got so far as a degree in political journalism before pursuing a career in non-profit management and marketing. She worked as a freelance journalist until opportunity met preparation when she won a fellowship from an NPR affiliate to write and produce a documentary podcast about a nationally-reported segregation controversy in her hometown and how it intersected with her own white middle class family’s adoption of a Black child they eventually relinquished. The podcast, “Finding Rebecca” which aired on WNYC’s Snap Judgement, was nominated for a Peabody Award. Roost’s debut memoir, Replacement Child, a more complete and nuanced account of her family saga, will be published in 2028 (West Virginia University Press).
Roost followed up “Finding Rebecca” with investigative podcasts on topics such as food deserts, and brain injuries. In 2019 she won an Annenberg Health Journalism
Fellowship and spent two years reporting in print and podcast outlets on a controversial pesticide known to cause neurological and brain damage in children.
In 2020, Amy edited an anthology entitled Fury: Women’s Live Experiences During the Trump Era, published by Regal House. A second anthology came out in 2022 entitled (Her)oics: Women’s Lived Experiences During the COVID Pandemic.
Amy earned her MFA in creative nonfiction from Pacific University. She graduated with honors with a B.A. in journalism from The George Washington University and earned her M.A. in international relations from Columbia University.
Amy’s byline has appeared in numerous publications including NPR Illinois, Ms. Magazine, Narratively, Hippocampus, Rumpus, and The San Diego Union Tribune.
When Amy is not writing or making podcasts, she manages estate sales in Bellingham, Washington where she lives with her disabled adult son, Spencer, and an emotional support boxer named Maverick.